Thursday, March 20, 2003

This day will, in history, pass perhaps the fall of the Soviet Union in its mark on the peoples of much of the world.
Will schoolchildren memorize Mar. 20, 2003? Perhaps not.

We don't yet have our visual moment, a la the Liberation of Paris, the Fall of Saigon, the Boston Tea Party. Yet bound to that moment-to-come, whichever way it goes, are the yearnings of a region of people, yearnings to rise above extreme poverty for some, political oppression for most; yearnings to see a day when they have some say in their own fate, can change leaders more than every odd decade, may speak critically without fear of bodily harm.

No one knows if Iraq will emulate Japan and Germany, remaining a people who choose their own leaders (and live peacefully) for a half century and more.